


writer in the dark

by wonhao



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Olympics, Crack, Established Relationship, Figure Skater AU, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, established wonhao, wonhao write a fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 04:13:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16032749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonhao/pseuds/wonhao
Summary: minghao believes that both jeonghan and mingyu would make a great couple . so in conclusion minghao believes writing a so-called fanfiction about them might just help them finally get together. and who is wonwoo to say no to the love of his life.a crack au no one asked for





	writer in the dark

**Author's Note:**

> hello i am back again feeding this poor dry tag. what started out as a strangers to lovers wonhao fic, became a whole crack fic of minghao desperately trying to get Mingyu and Jeonghan to date. I know the olympics were earliar on this year but i was watching clips from the all the figure skating matches and wanted to write something and I have had this thought out for a while so i thought hey why not just write it. and then i was watching ofd japan again and i love mingyu and jeonghans love hate relationship thus this was created ! and yes im aware minghao is chinese so in theory he would be in team china but for the sake of this fic pretend he is team south korea. 
> 
> i start back at uni soon so i won't be able to write as much so im trying to finish the fics i have. i will post my other wonhao fic which is like PURE ANGST in a few days once i find the energy to read over it. so for now enjoy this fluff crack or whatever the hell it is. 
> 
> also big big shoutout to [ash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyuhaoism/pseuds/gyuhaoism) !! i don't know what i would do without you- i wouldn't have written this thats for sure. thank you so much for all your help and pls go give her fics a read ! they are the best !!
> 
> warning at the end it does switch to a bit of gyuhan as well so it's not all wonhao .
> 
> anyway enjoy this piece of trash :)

“So, remember when we were all doing our Olympic photoshoot, and we ran into the figure skaters? And I said if they could ever stop bitching at each other, Jeonghan and Mingyu would be kind of hot and awesome together?” Minghao says this all in a conversational tone over breakfast (pancakes and bagels) to Wonwoo as if every morning is a good time to start gossiping about one’s teammates.

“Yeah, I remember.  And while you were busy day-dreaming of them giggling together in a pile of fake snow, I pointed out they live on opposite sides of the country and seem to have very little in common.”  Wonwoo replied, practically. He left the romantic crap up to Minghao, and while he enjoyed it from time to time, he wasn’t really one to sigh over unrequited love.

“Exactly!” Minghao punctuated this by thrusting his fork at Wonwoo, “They only see each other at competition and media events, so they never get to explore the idea of what they might be like just them, on their own.  And since they live on opposite coasts, the opportunities for them seeing each other are limited. That’s why the Olympics is our best shot!”

Wonwoo didn’t like where this was going.  “Our best shot at what?” he asked suspiciously.

Minghao rolled his eyes “Our best shot at getting them together!  They are both staying in the village, and they’ll both be around for the whole two weeks, and it doesn’t take everyone five years to get together.  Two weeks is plenty to get them together, given that they start to see each other in a new light.”

Wonwoo groaned.  This was so typical of Minghao, wanting to make everyone happy.  He and Wonwoo didn’t have a perfect relationship, but he seemed to think it was good enough that everyone else in the world ought to be madly in love with their competitors.

“Ok, cupid, how exactly are we going to help them see each other in a new light between the races?  You do remember that we are going to the Olympics to win figure-skating right?” Wonwoo couldn’t believe he was getting sucked into this. The twinkle in Minghao’s eyes made him realize he had just walked face first into agreeing to help with some plan Minghao had already concocted.

“Well, remember a few weeks ago when I got on that kick about trying new things, wanting to call you daddy, and try some bondage and all that stuff?” Wonwoo definitely remembered.  After two weeks of some surprising sexual encounters some of which were incredibly hot (Minghao tied to the headboard) and some of which they had mutually agreed to never bring up again (they were pretty sure toys would be out of the picture for a long, long time) their sex life had settled back into their normal routine, albeit with a few less vanilla nights mixed in.

Wonwoo raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Right, as if I’d forget your adorable blushing self suggesting dirty things I could hardly believe you came up with.”

“Well, that’s the thing.   **I** didn’t come up with all of them.” Minghao leaned forward, food momentarily forgotten.  “and I told you I got the ideas off the internet, but that’s not the whole story.”

Wonwoo gestured for him to continue, since he sure as hell wasn’t getting the picture.

“I was bored and couldn’t sleep one night after you had already passed out and so I decided to google us.” Wonwoo snorted at that.  Who the fuck googles themselves?

“I know you think that’s lame, but you would not believe what I found.  People write stories about us.”

“Duh, we get interviewed together all the time, you think those reporters do it just so they can keep the notepads?

“No, not those kind of stories.  Fictional stories. About how we fell in love, about us training together, and having kids, and what we get up to in bed—“ Wonwoo’s eyebrows shot up. Minghao rushed to continue, “—I mean, obviously they don’t really know what our life is like, I’m yet to read a story where you cook me dinner and unceremoniously tell me that I either need to start dating you or stop making puppy dog eyes, they have delusions about your romantic side, but it was kind of hot—okay, really hot—and even though I know you way better than crazy strangers, there were a few things that made me pause and think about you in a new way.

Wonwoo was starting to see where these two conversations were going and he did not like it at all. “Are you suggesting we find some stories about Jeonghan and Mingyu and somehow trick them into reading it?”

Minghao waved his fork dismissively.  “No, no they are all too vague. We need to write a story about their feelings for each other going into the Olympics so that they will realize this might be their last chance to get together!” His eyes were bright like he had just kicked ass in practice and was sure of his ability to do it again.

“No. Absolutely not.  I am NOT helping you write a story about Mingyu and Jeonghan.  I mean, you just said I’m not romantic at all. I can hardly be expected to dream up some schmoopy crap about how they recognize their undying love.” Wonwoo thought this was a pretty good defense.

“I’ll do the romantic stuff” Minghao declared, “but you are going to help.  I mean, you’re so good at talking dirty to me, you’ve got to be able to write a good sex scene.  And you’ve been to the Olympics before, so you can help me make it realistic. And of course then we’ll have to decide how to get it to them.”  Minghao picked up his plate and Wonwoo’s to take to the sink, where he rinsed them both.

Wonwoo just put his head on the table where his plate had been.  Minghao was such a lost cause to this match-making crap. And he would rope Wonwoo in one way or another. He was screwed.

\---

_Mingyu looked across the cafeteria trying to decide where to sit and drink his milkshake.  It seemed pretty full, Wonwoo and Minghao were playfully elbowing each other in a booth with some other skaters, a loud knot of snowboarders had shoved a few tables together, and there was general mayhem.  Across the room he spotted an empty chair. Across from Yoon Jeonghan. He gulped, his hands suddenly damp from his own sweat. Jeonghan was playing with his phone, delicate, beautiful hands dancing across the touchpad.  The beautiful lines of his face and neck cut through Mingyu like a knife. Could he take that seat? What would he say? How would he keep from stammering out his undeclared love?_

“Oh my GOD Minghao.  This shit is awful. And why did you have to put us in it?  That’s just weird. Who acts like this, a 13 year old girl? Have you even met Mingyu?  Do you think he would ever describe anyone’s hands as ‘delicate and beautiful’?” Wonwoo couldn’t believe Minghao had written this crap.  Or that he was so perceptive about Jeonghan’s attributes. Maybe he should be worried.

“Well, I only have so much experience to draw on here Wonwoo! I’ve only liked you, and this is how I felt sometimes before we got together…” He trailed off sheepishly.  Wonwoo sighed.

“You were a lovestruck 19-year-old.  Mingyu is an oblivious 22-year-old.” He paused.  “That sounds like me actually. Give me the keyboard, let me try.”

 

_Mingyu looked around the crowded cafeteria  for somewhere to drink his milkshake. It was pretty full, he wasn’t cool enough to sit with the skaters, a loud knot of snowboarders had shoved most of the middle tables together, and it seemed like this was the peak hour for this dive.  Maybe he would be better off just going to his room. Then across the room he spotted an empty chair. At Yoon fucking Jeonghan’s table. He was just sitting there eating and playing with his phone. Well, it was better than standing there looking like a tool.  He could be smooth and just drink his shake and get away from Jeonghan with a minimal of conversation. No one would think he actually was friends with the guy, let alone that every now and again when he laughed or smiled and caught Mingyu’s eye, Mingyu had to go jack off.  They could just sit together like guys do. He made his way over to the table and sat down with a grunt of greeting._

“Seriously Wonwoo?  I always thought being hungry just made you cranky and that was why you would never talk to me during meals.  You are such a shit.” Minghao looked at him accusingly. “But this is actually pretty good. I’ll write Jeonghan, you go make dinner.” Minghao turned back to the computer and began typing again while Wonwoo went to steam some vegetables.

\---

Minghao looked really satisfied when he sat down at dinner. “So I have Mingyu and Jeonghan making awkward small talk before Jeonghan points out that they won’t have to deal with each other much longer, while secretly dying inside that he won’t see Mingyu anymore.  Then Mingyu offhandedly suggests they meet at the cafe after worlds, their eyes meet and Jeonghan suggests they go back to his room.”

Wonwoo stabbed his broccoli with undue force. “Really Minghao?  A cafe? You can think of something better. And you do realize Jeonghan is rooming with Mingyu’s ex, right?  Not the best place to begin their relationship. And if they think the other is hot, they’ve had plenty of time to recognize that.  They need to see themselves as complementary rather than opposites, Mingyu needs to see Jeonghan as less shallow, and Jeonghan has to see that beneath the competitiveness and snarkiness, Mingyu is abright fun guy with a sense of humor and personality.”

Minghao’s eyes were dancing and the way he was chewing suggested he was trying not to smile.

Wonwoo realized he had just been plotting how to help figure skaters fall in love and scowled at Minghao. “I can’t believe you even have me thinking about this.  I hate you.”

Minghao swallowed and grinned. “You know you love me for keeping your life interesting.  Without me you would do nothing but play video games and sleep.”

Wonwoo had long ago learned that Minghao interpreted “Shut up.” as “I know you’re right and won’t admit it.” so he just kept quiet and speared a carrot.

\---

“They get locked in a closet together?”

“They have phones dumb-ass.”

“Mingyu gets sick and Jeonghan has the right blood type?”

“So does his mother.”

“There is a rooming mix up and they have to room together.”

“Unlikely, but more likely than being soulmates and bloodmates or whatever. Stick with the lunch beginning.  It’s already written, and it’s not totally lame.”

“But I don’t know where to go from there!”

“I thought they were declaring their love at sunset in June in some random cafe?”

“You were right, no one is that lame.  Maybe I should just stick with a character profile.”

“A what?”

“That’s what they call it when the people are really just having sex but they think a lot and you get to see their personalities through how they are in bed.”

“I don’t even want to know where you get this stuff.”

“That’s not what you said last night when we tried the whole sensory deprivation-by-blindfold thing.”

“I can’t decide if I’m more worried about your fixation on Jeonghan and Mingyu or on reading fiction about someone you live with.”

“We’re getting off topic.  How do they fall in love?”

Wonwoo was kind of getting tired of these conversations on the way to and from practice.  Usually they talked over the practice, critiquing one another’s skating, fighting over whose iPod would get plugged in on the way home, or about what Minghao’s family were up to, but for the past three days Minghao had claimed he had ‘writer’s block’ and the only cure was bugging Wonwoo to death about his stupid fanfiction story.

“Look, if you want to make it realistic, you should probably just have them both have feelings for each other, not talk about it, and never get together because I’m 95% sure that is what will actually happen, since you don’t even know if they like each other.  It’s not like they are secretly writing love letters to each other.”

“Wonwoo! That’s brilliant!”

“What is?”

“Love letters! One of them will find a note or a journal entry or something about the other and then they will have to confront their feelings!”

Wonwoo wished he could bang his head against the steering wheel.

\---

_Jihoon—have you seen Mingyu yet?  My practices have all sucked, because I keep watching him instead of focusing on my skating. I know you keep telling me he’s not as dumb as he seems, that he is just that way around me (what does THAT mean?) but it is infuriating to be so attracted to such a Neanderthal.  Why didn’t anyone ever tell him he is too tall, dark, and handsome to be a beautiful skater? It would have saved me a lot of misery. Anyway, just wanted you to know that since I can’t seem to skate with him around I’ll be at the rink longer so I can get some time when he isn’t there.  Don’t expect me back until late and DO NOT USE MY MOISTURISER._

_Lots of Love,_

_Jeonghan_

 

_It took a minute to process that this was real.  He was the reason Jeonghan seemed so distracted? Jeonghan had always seemed to be so fiercely competent on the ice, dealing with only his inner demons and ignoring everyone else. He was torn between being frustrated that Jeonghan thought he was dumb and relieved that Jeonghan had never realized it was only around him that his words seemed to stop working—_

“Minghao! Again with the pre-teen girl!  I swear to God you probably have some sparkly notebook that has ‘Mr. Jeon Minghao’ written all over it.” Wonwoo had agreed to read this travesty against the English language, but really, Minghao sometimes was just too melodramatic.

“I do not! Besides, we both know Xu Wonwoo sounds much better. It rhymes!  Why would I take your last name?” His retort was given in a heated tone, but the slight blush meant Wonwoo wasn’t too far off the mark. Minghao probably did have some ridiculous diary tucked away somewhere.

“Whatever, you know you’re my bitch.” He lightened the words by wrapping his arms around his torso and resting his chin on his shoulder and leaving a small kiss on his neck.

“The letter part isn’t bad, although this has got to be the worst plot device ever. But they are both professionals.  And Mingyu seems like the kind of guy who wouldn’t over-analyze this much. He finds the letter, he finds out Jeonghan hates that he likes him and he decides what to do about it.  So what’s he gonna do about it?” Minghao nodded thoughtfully and bit his lower lip before turning back to the computer.

_It took a minute to process that this was real.  He was the reason Jeonghan seemed so distracted? Jeonghan had always seemed to be so fiercely competent on the ice, dealing with only his inner demons and ignoring everyone else. And this put things in a totally new perspective.  So he thought Jeonghan was gorgeous and amazing, and Jeonghan thought he was a hot moron. Well, it was better than nothing. So what was he going to do? Say something? Ignore it? Fuck. Was he, or was he not, a serious competitor?  He spent his life risking injury, and if he could deal with injuries in his foot, his hip, his back, why not his heart?”_

“Minghao!!!”

_He spent his life risking injury, he could fucking talk to Yoon Jeonghan and show him he was more than a Neanderthal._

“Much better.” Wonwoo glanced over it approvingly.  “Now can we please get the laptop off your lap, so I can get on it?” At that Minghao snapped the computer shut and threw the covers off his bottom half so that Wonwoo could slide him down and get on top of him.

\---

“So Mingyu’s going to man up and go talk to Jeonghan while they are both watching pairs.”

“Yeah? What angle have you decided to go with?  Bashful and stammering? Brash and pre-planned? Casually conversational?”

“How did you know those were the tropes?”

“Well, since you seem to enjoy this fanfic so much I decided maybe I should educate myself.”

Minghao’s breath hitched a little and he squirmed in his seat (Wonwoo always drove.  He had a Lexus, he had better insurance rates, and he was a control freak. Minghao never seemed to mind.) “Yeah? What did you think?”

Wonwoo let him wonder for a minute.  “Well, I’ve learned that no one can decide whether Mingyu or Jeonghan will top, and that figure skaters are supposed to be impressively flexible.  Ha. They’ve never seen me stretch.”

“You fucker! I thought you meant you read stories about us!” Minghao glared at him

“Oh, well, in that case I learned that everyone in the entire world knows that I top, and no one knows exactly how horny it makes me to go to your stupid concerts with you.”

Minghao looked interested “You get turned on at those? You always complain that I’m dragging you to hear indie kids whine.”

Wonwoo snorted back “Minghao, your pupils get dialated, you sing along soulfully, and it is always in some tiny grotty place where we get all sweaty.  What do you think you sweaty and breathless does to me?”

“Oh.  I guess I never thought about it.  Well, I’ll tell you that I’m yet to read anything where you pull off the highway because you just can’t wait to blow me.”

“I’ve never done that in real life either.”

“No time like the present to change that.”

\---

After a satisfying interlude on the side of a road where Wonwoo thanked God he had gone with the darkest windows , Minghao turned back to his current favorite topic of how to get Jeonghan and Mingyu together.

“I think it would really help me if you talked me through your thought process when you decided to come clean and tell me you were interested in me.” Minghao made it sound casual, but he had yet to master the difference between casual and too-casual-to-be-casual.

“Whatever, you just want to know what pushed me over the edge after your years of  terribly unsubtle flirting.” Wonwoo had mastered that art, and knew Minghao would see through it anyway. He stared at the road as he put the car back in drive and waited a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing.

“Well, I knew you liked me, you had liked me for years, but I had just thought it was the kind of idol worship that would go away and I didn’t want to do anything that would make you feel stupid later, and I didn’t want to encourage you too much, but then after I took that season off, and I came back you seemed more sure of yourself, like without me there all the time you had really grown into your own, and didn’t rely on me as much .  And I started to be really interested in what kind of guy you would be, and you stopped trying to impress me and started just being yourself and actually impressing me. And finally I decided that if you still wanted me I would be a total dipshit to not tap that.” Wonwoo finished with a grin, alleviating a little of his uncharacteristic seriousness.

Minghao wanted to push further, about what led to that first date, Wonwoo’s totally lame declaration of like, but Wonwoo had used up his emotional quotient for the next three weeks in that little speech, so he was pretty sure that would have to wait.

“Well, if we apply that kind of thought to Jeonghan and Mingyu, one of them has to realize that if they wait any longer the opportunity will be lost forever.”  Minghao chewed his lip in his distracting way, turned on the radio and was quiet for the rest of the drive.

\---

_“I’m not a Neanderthal.” Mingyu made the declaration without much emotion as he folded his tall frame into the chair next to where Jeonghan was watching the pairs couples warm up._

_“What?” Jeonghan looked guarded and strong at the same time, the mix of vulnerability and imperviousness that drew people to him._

_“I found your note to Jihoon.  I read it. I’m not a Neanderthal.  I paint in my spare time, I have a real love for modern art, I listen to 70s music, and Joshua told me that since you’ve got the porcelain skin and dramatic lashes look cornered I needed to be the tan one who is also very tall. I’m tired of looking stupid around you, and I’m tired of you making fun of me when you don’t know a damn thing about me—you’re supposed to be all ‘be_ who _ever you want, don’t let people stereotype you’ and I’ll be damned if this is our last competition together and you still don’t know any of this.” Mingyu made his entire speech quickly, in a tone slightly less than conversational, and without meeting Jeonghan’s eyes at all._

_For once Jeonghan had no quick, witty reply.  After a few moments of silence between them, Mingyu finally met Jeonghan’s eyes and said “I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t care what you thought.  I care more than you’ve ever given me a reason to, so if you are interested in finding out more, you know where to find me.”_

“I can’t believe you wrote this.” Minghao looked up at Wonwoo , and the disbelief was written all over his face.  It made Wonwoo uncomfortable.

“Well, you were stuck, and I know for whatever reason this ridiculous story means something to you, so I thought I would give it a go.”  He had his arms crossed defensively against his chest.

“It’s great.  There’s the tension, it’s taut—I always end up going overboard with the description—it’s perfect.” Minghao looked more than a little pleased.

“Well, I figured if I could get you past this part you could write your little happily ever after or whatever, and then we could get back to worrying about the competition part of the Olympics rather than the love lives of the other athletes.

“No, I think this is the perfect ending.  That way they have to think for themselves where they would like the story to go, where they want their own story to go.” Now Minghao was practically vibrating at his desk. “Wonwoo, I’m so pumped about this, I’m just buzzing.”

He did look deliciously anxious, so Wonwoo couldn’t help but pull him up for a kiss and then push him to the bed to get rid of some of his nervous energy.

\---

Minghao polishes the story up some, tweaking it until he thinks it’s perfect, and then has to decide how they are going to get it to Jeonghan and Mingyu.

“I think we should just go ahead and put it in their info packets.  That way we know they’ll get it.”

“They’ll get it, but they won’t read it.  After your first Olympics everyone knows your coach will tell you anything really important and you won’t have to deal with all that crap.”

“Taped to the door?”

“So that anyone could read your little masterpiece?  Nothing would make them feel more awkward about going anywhere near each other than knowing that everyone on their hallway has read a story about how they are secretly in love.”

“Could we slip it in a pocket at opening ceremonies?”

“Dude, if you think I’m going to let anyone even think you might be feeling up someone else, you are mistaken.”

“Okay genius, what’s your brilliant idea?”  Minghao was spotting Wonwoo in the weight room as they talked.  Wonwoo had finally banned all talk of Jeonghan and Mingyu from the car or within an hour of bed (he claimed it just wasn’t that healthy to think about men other than his lover that close to having sex).

“Well, you already know I don’t think this will work, they are just going to find your story fucking creepy, but if you do want them to give it thought, the Opening Ceremonies are a bad time.  You need to wait until after they compete, when they are thinking about what they are doing next.”

Minghao switched places with Wonwoo on the squat racks and adjusted the weight. They may both be skinny but they can lift a considerable amount of weight.

“But then you and I are going to be really busy too, and in a completely different building!”

“We’re still staying in the same place.  Just make a few copies and we’ll decide when we get there.”

Wonwoo was extremely thankful Minghao seemed to let it go at that.  He printed out a few copies of the story (extras just in case) and put them in a folder to keep the pages crisp.  He put it in the pocket of his empty suitcase, to wait until they went to Pyeongchang.

\---

As the Olympics approached, Wonwoo was relieved to see that Minghao had switched his focus to his own training and his own mental game rather than trying to help some figure skaters up their game.  Minghao looked so good on the ice, it made Wonwoo a little wistful. He was in the best shape of his life, trained to perfection, he skated with purpose and intensity, but Minghao skated with the joy of youth.  Wonwoo skated for the rush of speed, Minghao skated for the exuberance of flight. But they were both training to win, and when they got on the train to Pyeongchang the story was tucked in the suitcase (it was the only neat thing in Minghao’s suitcase; Wonwoo couldn’t bear to just shove things in and zip it shut, Minghao laughed at him for folding everything neatly) but their minds were both on the competition.

Wonwoo loved the Opening Ceremonies.  Sometimes they dragged, but there was such a thrill to be wearing a uniform (even one that made him look like he went to a prep school a century ago—he was kind of disturbed how attractive Minghao was in the school-boy get up) with everyone else, to be representing South Korea.  Sure, he was a star of his sport, but he was just another short super-athlete in the Village. But here, with the whole team he felt like it wasn’t him taking on the world, but that he had this force with him. Minghao had been somewhat amused by his excitement.

“Seriously Wonwoo, you’re like a kid going to Disneyland.  I don’t think there are spinning teacups in the arena. Some of the other guys said it’s not even that interesting, it can be boring.”

“Well it can be boring, but that’s not the point! The point is that we are athletes representing our country, and we don’t know each other or about each other’s sports, and some of us are more famous—“

“You mean YOU are more famous than them.”

“—whatever, we’re all the same walking in.  We’re all Olympians. And it is awesome.”

“God Wonwoo, I’m suddenly realizing you are a romantic, just not about me.  You are such a sap about this.” Minghao cocked his head to the side “It’s kind of cute.  You, being all earnest.”

Then Minghao had gotten that sensitive melty look that Wonwoo wouldn’t admit made him go a little soft inside and stroked Wonwoo’s face and adjusted his hair with an unreadable expression (okay, if Wonwoo HAD to read it, it would be ‘tender’ but Wonwoo didn’t like to think of him and Minghao as being all…touchy-feely like that) before adjusting his outfit and asking Wonwoo if he looked like he could represent South Korea as well.  Wonwoo ran a hand down the broad, soft lapel and told him that he would do.

\---

The opening ceremonies had been great, Wonwoo had been right.  Minghao had felt like a champion just being there with all the athletes, a loud group of people all with the heightened readiness for competition but still with some camaraderie. He had seen Jeonghan talking to his blond roommate, and Mingyu had been asking some stouter looking guys about the finer points of curling.  Wonwoo had seen him darting looks between them and finally had steered him over to Jeonghan and Jihoon to make small talk about traveling and the Village. Jeonghan was angry he had to stay in the Village at all, apparently he was high-security and his room smelled like dog (Jihoon was quick to point out he had arrived second and by the time he was there, Jeonghan had transformed it).  Wonwoo sympathized since he had to have high security too, and by the time they found seats, Minghao was more at ease until Mingyu sat down two rows ahead just in front of them.

“Jesus, why don’t tall people ever get the memo to sit in the back?” Jeonghan groused in what Minghao was learning was his standard bitching-but-not-bitchy voice.

Wonwoo laughed and slapped him on the back, “It just means the cameras won’t catch us not paying attention to the stupid speeches. Mingyu will have to have his best polite face on the whole time.”

Jeonghan seemed slightly mollified.  “Well then to pass the time I think we should give everyone makeovers.  I’ll start with that blonde american guy with the rat’s nest. He could be really pretty.”

Minghao was asked to weigh in every now and again on whether someone’s make up was too much, or how they would look with a different hair color, and then blushingly stammered a defense against Jeonghan’s attack (I mean, he couldn’t actually say outloud, at the Opening Ceremonies at the OLYMPICS that Wonwoo’s fingers drove him crazy) to which Jeonghan looked at him a little too knowingly, making Minghao blush harder and made Wonwoo smirk in his infuriating way.

Minghao perked up when Wonwoo asked how Jeonghan would makeover Mingyu.  “Oh damn, where do I even start with that hot mess.” He said before trailing off.

Jihoon leaned in with a sparkle in his eye.  “Well, as his ex, I have to say this may be a personal preference but I think he needs to even out the manscaping.  It’s, like, he has hair on his head, arms and legs, and then gets rid of everything else. I mean….just one or the other.” he settled back into her seat after offering his opinion.

Jeonghan looked a little lost in thought before he regained himself.  “Well Ji, now I need to pluck my eyes out, thank you.” He replied snippily before deciding Mingyu needed to get a new haircut, a new wardrobe, and a make up artist who understood what bronzer was for.

Wonwoo elbowed Minghao to stop him from grinning too much.

\---

After the ceremonies when they had changed out of their matching get up and into shirts and boxers, Wonwoo slid into bed with a book next to where Minghao was squinting at his laptop. He grabbed Minghao’s glasses off the table and tossed them into his lap.

“Here, you don’t need to go any more blind.”

“Oh thanks.  I was just reading this message from my mum.  She said she saw us on TV, and to say hi to you.” He typed a quick reply and put the computer away before propping himself up on his elbow and turning to face Wonwoo.

“I know you don’t like talking about Jeonghan and Mingyu in bed—“

Wonwoo groaned and tossed the book aside, but didn’t say anything, so Minghao continued

“—but you saw it too right?  That Jeonghan thinks he’s hot?  And now this whole idea seems so stupid.  They’re real people and they have kind of known each other for like ten years and whatever they feel for each other is more complicated than my stupid story can fix.  I mean, I would never want anyone plotting about me and you the way we—ok I—am plotting about them.” Minghao looked so honestly worried that it was hard to be irritated.

“You’re right, they’ve had a lot of time to think about how they feel about each other, and I’ve told you all along that if they have feelings they might not ever be willing to say anything, and while I still think this whole story thing is lame as fuck, there isn’t anything stupid about wanting them to know what they could have.” Minghao was quiet when Wonwoo finished speaking, and Wonwoo just reached over and rubbed his arm.

“It just seemed so easy for us, you know?  I mean, I liked you and was so awkward forever, and then eventually you told me you liked me too, or at least you kind of said that in your stupid way, but we knew what we felt and we told each other.  I wish they could do that.” It was Wonwoo’s turn to be quiet for a moment.

“I wasn’t going to tell you.” He finally said.

“What?” Minghao scrunched his face up.

“I wasn’t going to tell you how I felt.  I thought I wasn’t _good_ enough for you, and that I would fuck it up and I wanted your first relationship to be good, with someone sweet who would ease you into sex and love, even though that might mean you would stop liking me, and I was scared that if I gave you what you wanted you would realize I wasn’t as great as you thought. I thought I would fuck it up and I wasn’t going to say anything.” Wonwoo said it in a rush, and it took Minghao a minute to process it.

Wonwoo had never, not once, seemed unsure about their relationship, it had always seemed like it was on his terms.  Sure, he would grouse about anyone Minghao paid attention to, but that just seemed like he was a prima donna (and he was) not like he was actually worried.  Their first date, their first kiss, the first time they had sex, Wonwoo had seemed so confident that they would work, that they were right together.

Taking in Minghao’s gobsmacked look, Wonwoo flopped onto his back and continued, while staring at the ceiling—if he was going to get it off his chest, he might as well do it before Minghao could start asking questions.  Once he finished saying this he never wanted to talk about it again. “When you were seventeen your parents came over together to talk to me. They could read me a little better than you could, they saw that I liked you, and they thought I was just waiting until you were eighteen to ask you out.  They had this whole ‘we’ll kill you if you hurt Minghao’ speech all planned out, and I told them I had no intention of asking you out and they couldn’t believe it.”

He let out a snort, and threw an arm over his head. “The convinced me that for all their stupid bluster they thought we would be good together and that I should grow a set and take responsibility—that if I was so sure you were going to get hurt, that everything was going to suck, that I was the best one to make sure that didn’t happen.  So I made you that stupid dinner and demanded that you go out with me and knew you would say yes, and I wanted to make sure we had the chance to actually date before I could jump you, just in case we realized it wasn’t going to work. And then I thought, hell, maybe this will work, maybe I can make it all really good for Minghao, maybe if I date him he won’t ever have to go through all that stupid shit everyone else goes through.”  As last words went, it wasn’t exactly a strong ending, but it was really all Wonwoo had.

So he just shrugged and turned his head to look at Minghao who was still staring at him.

“Shut your mouth, you look like a goldfish.” Wonwoo punctuated the statement with a push to Minghao’s ribs that seemed to shake him out of his reverie.

Finally he asked “Why did you decide to tell me this now?”

“Well, you were going on about how we just told each other how we felt and figured it out.  But I had help. Your parents gave me the extra push. So maybe Jeonghan and Mingyu do just need to feel like they won’t fuck up their lives by admitting they could be more than rivals.”

Minghao smiled, one of those brilliant wide grins that Wonwoo couldn’t quite take from this close up head on.

“I take it all back,” he said, carefully taking off his glasses and scooting closer to Wonwoo where he started to pull his shirt off, “you are the most romantic man I know.”

\---

Today, is the day he is helping Minghao implement the most ridiculous match-making scheme ever.  He rolls out of bed first, trying not to let too much cold air under the covers before turning the shower on.  He’s washing his hair when the door opens and Minghao joins him.

“Trying to save time, or just wanted to see me naked some more?”  Wonwoo grinned as he held his head under the nozzle to rinse it.

“Saving time so I can see you naked more.  I’m multitasking.” They switched places so Minghao could start showering.  

As he rubbed shower gel all over (Wonwoo cringed—Minghao used the same generic crap on his hair and body.  Wonwoo was fairly sure it was just a pointed commentary on his own skin and hair-care regime, but still) he smiled at Wonwoo.

Today was a relaxed day, they were halfway through with events and they just had some qualifiers that they would breeze through. Wonwoo conditioned his hair while Minghao rinsed again, and they switched back so Wonwoo could rinse his hair again.  The one benefit of Minghao’s deplorable regime was that they got out of the shower at the same time. Minghao doesn’t really have to shave everyday, so he let Wonwoo wrap him in a towel and sat on the counter to watch Wonwoo shave.

Wonwoo had initially thought this would be one of the worst parts of living with someone; fighting over the shower, who would get up first, who squeezed the toothpaste wrong, but instead he found Minghao’s presence just made everything better, gave him someone to talk to in the morning and never seemed to get too much in the way.

And Minghao had a thing for watching him shave that he just didn’t get, but didn’t complain about either.

“I know that you are really doing this just to humor me, but be honest—you would get a kick out of it if this worked, right?”

Wonwoo wiped the last of the soap off his face and turned to Minghao while he wiped his face.  “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up too much. I think you’re right, there’s something there, and maybe we can help, but if they don’t get together, it’s not like a failure.  And yes, I would love for you to be right, although God knows you’d probably try to set everyone on the team up if you get a taste of matchmaking success. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you’ve been dropping how cute the snowboarders are to the guys every time they walk by.”

Minghao jumped off the counter and followed Wonwoo back to the bedroom.  “Okay, one match at a time, I promise. Let’s run through the plan again.”

“Jesus Christ Minghao, it’s not exactly black ops.  Don’t worry about it. I’ve got Mingyu covered, you’ve got Jeonghan, we meet for practice.”  Wonwoo pulled on some Team SK gear—his favored look in the Village just in case there was any doubt about where he was from—and gave Minghao a mock-exasperated look.

“I’m just nervous okay?  Here’s your copy.” He zipped up his hoodie and jumped up and down in place like he was psyching up for a race.  Wonwoo pulled him close and kissed him.

_“So let’s do it.”_

\---

Minghao went to Jeonghan’s rooms and knocked on the door.  “Hi Jeonghan, I was wondering if I could ask you about Jihoon.  You see, my friend really thinks he’s hot…” he mentally rehearsed his speech so that he could get in the room and plant the story.

Jihoon opened the door.  Minghao’s face fell.

“Oh. Um. Hi Ji.  I was looking for Jeonghan.”  He felt like an idiot. How had this not occurred to him?  A little part of his brain was at least glad it hadn’t occurred to Wonwoo either.

“He’s out getting some fresh air, he said he needed a break from ‘the house’ and went to soak up culture.  Which probably translates to, he went to find Seungcheol so he can complain about the whole Mingyu debacle.” He said this as he let him in and led him to the living room of their little two-person condo. “Would you like some tea?  I’m just making some.” he went into the kitchenette, and Minghao pulled out the story and placed it folded on the coffee table.

“Oh.  Um. No.  Thanks though.  I was just going to talk to Jeonghan and I guess I could do that later, I’ll just try to find him…later.” He sounded so lame, but he had planted the story, and that was the point of the visit.  He still kind of felt like it was a failure. At least he had time for a snack before practice.

“Okay, well, good luck with your races.” Jihoon gave him an unexpected hug at the door and let him out.

“Yeah…you too. .”  That was the worst yet. God .  But he shut the door and he was done.  Now as long as Wonwoo had done his part (not that he was sure what that was, Wonwoo had just said to stop bugging him, he would get Mingyu the story) they could just wait and see.

\---

“Yo! Mingyu!” Wonwoo had gotten his agent to give him Mingyu’s schedule of meeting with sponsors and so here in the Coke Athlete’s Lounge, running into Mingyu wasn’t exactly a surprise.

“Oh hey Wonwoo , I have barely seen you since Opening Ceremonies.  Too busy kicking ass and taking names?” Mingyu asked. Wonwoo steered him towards a couch in the corner.

“Well, you know, programs, press, training, keeping my team in line.  You’re the one doing the ass-kicking, congrats man.” Wonwoo could see he was wearing the medal under his shirt, the curve of it making it not quite lay flat against his chest. “But I didn’t just want to congratulate you, I was hoping we could chat for a minute.”

“Oh yeah, sure.”  They sat down, and Wonwoo was struck by how beautiful Mingyu actually was.

“So this is going to sound so totally weird, but it’s about Minghao.  Ever since Opening Ceremonies when we sat with Jeonghan he’s been so interested in you guys and at first I was glad he was getting into the spirit of the Games, but then I found something on his computer,” at this he pulled out the story, “and I was just a little concerned.”

Mingyu took it and after scanning it a little his head jolted up.  “Minghao wrote a love story about me and Jeonghan?” He looked more than a little stunned.  Good. Wonwoo’s shock and awe tactics were working.

“Yeah, it totally weirded me out, and I didn’t say anything to him, but finally I asked him why he was so into figure skating all of a sudden and he told me that ever since we all met at the photo shoot he has thought you guys should be friends and just wanted to help you out by having friends in common. I mean, I don’t know, I’m not gonna say you and Hannie don’t have a little of that whole ‘lady-doth-protest-too-much’ crap going on, but obviously you have good reasons for keeping everything professional.”

Mingyu still looked like he wasn’t ready to respond, so Wonwoo took advantage to plow ahead.

“So here’s the thing.  I found this crazy story, and Minghao has this crazy idea about you two, and I know you guys are done competing, but we aren’t.  And I just thought maybe if you came to one of our free programs with Jeonghan, it would give him that extra boost.” Wonwoo leaned back.

“Um.” Mingyu shook his head a few times.  “Uh, I don’t know about Jeonghan, I haven’t seen him since the medal ceremony, but give me the times and I’ll try to come to see you guys skate.  I mean, you’re about to make history, right?” He didn’t say anything about the relationship thing but he was clutching the pages Wonwoo had given him.

“Yeah, the times are right here, and here’s a few passes.  See you around bro.” Wonwoo left before Mingyu could get his head on enough to ask any questions.  He smirked. He had rocked his part of the plan.

\---

Jeonghan—Minghao came by while you were out.  He acted really weird, then left this. I have no idea what his deal is, but this is HILARIOUS.  I’m getting sushi if you want to join, just call me.

-Jihoonie :p

Jeonghan placed his bags down next to the counter and unfolded the pages the note was left on.

_Kim Mingyu , two time National Champion and reigning World Champion was not having a good day.  First of all, his coach had insisted he needed to eat more healthier before going to the Olympics, and secondly, he had just run out of hair gel, and hadn’t been able to find a bottle of his favorite brand at the shop.  Finally, he was on his way to Pyeongchang where he might be having his last competition as a figure skater. That was worrying enough, since he really wasn’t sure what he would do when he retired, but the real issue was Yoon Jeonghan. And how he didn’t want this to be their last time together._

Even though Jihoon had said he was out, this seemed so ludicrous that Jeonghan took a look around as if to check if anyone else was watching, like maybe this was some bizarre joke.  He rifled through the pages, probably five or seven total. He went to the bathroom and began filling the tub. This looked like it was GREAT bubble bath reading material.

After he finished reading the story, which had alternately made him laugh, cringe, and wonder, he threw the humid pages on the floor and dunked his head underwater.  

So Minghao had left this here?  Wonwoo’s little boyfriend had come over claiming he needed to talk to Jeonghan and then had left a love story about himself and Mingyu?  Where had he gotten it? Why did he want Jeonghan to have it? These questions seemed much easier than figuring out how he felt about it.  

Did people really think this about him and Mingyu, that their rivalry and bickering really meant they had some kind of attraction to him? Sure, Mingyu was attractive sometimes, and he was a nice change from all the waif-like skaters (like Jeonghan himself), with his broad shoulders and easy grin. He could be a jerk, but he wasn’t a bitch either.

Fuck, maybe Jeonghan really would miss him.  He hadn’t even really thought about it. He dunked under again, enjoying the feeling of his hair waving like seagrass under the warm water and slowly exhaled bubbles.  Maybe this story had something to it.

\---

_Yoon Jeonghan, three time National Champion and World Medalist had a problem.  It wasn’t his quad, it wasn’t his overbearing coach, and it wasn’t what to wear.  It was Kim Mingyu. He and Mingyu had been competing against each other for years, and the upcoming Olympic Games were probably their last major competition together.  Jeonghan was glad to see him go off and retire as a competitor, Mingyu was a pain in the ass at competitions, but his real problem lay with Mingyu himself. Or rather, that he was attracted to Mingyu himself._

Mingyu couldn’t stop re-reading this stupid story Wonwoo had given him.  The whole thing was kind of ridiculous. Awkwardly angsting over Jeonghan at lunch?  Dramatic monologues? Jeonghan liking him?

Minghao must really be cracking under the pressure or something. But then he kept reading it, and in interviews people asked about Jeonghan and the words from the story describing Jeonghan—pale but slightly tanned skin, compact beauty, hungry gaze—kept leaping back to him.

He had never thought Jeonghan would be attracted to him (it wasn’t real! He still isn’t attracted!), Mingyu wasn’t openly gay, and Jeonghan’s tastes in everything ran to pretty, something Mingyu was most definitely not, too tall, too big a nose, too fond of sweatpants to be pretty.  He had to stop thinking about this. Why did it matter if Jeonghan found him pretty?

He was going to take the passes, watch Wonwoo and Minghao, and if he ran into Jeonghan, maybe he would invite him.  And then maybe they’d see each other at Closing Ceremonies, or not, and then…they just wouldn’t see each other. Fuck.  He did care that they were never going to see each other again, and it did bug him that Jeonghan just assumed he was the package he presented, and now he was knocking on his and Jihoon’s door.

\---

Jeonghan opened the door, wearing a long, thin expensive looking bathrobe, his hair his damp curls around his face and if Mingyu had been just a bit more dramatic he might have imagined that he could feel the heat and smell of a hot bath coming off of Jeonghan.  Jeonghan seemed startled for a minute (who could blame him?) before inviting Mingyu in.

“Sorry, I was just getting ready and then thought I would get some tea when you knocked.  Would you like some?” Jeonghan had opened the door, and when Mingyu came past him in the narrow hall he could smell the shampoo of Jeonghan’s head and thought for a second that he was going crazy.

“Um. Sure.  Thanks. What are you getting ready for?”  Mingyu sat down at the counter of Jihoon and Jeonghan’s little kitchenette while Jeonghan put ice cubes in two tall glasses.

“Oh, not really getting ready for anything, but getting dressed for anything takes me time, so getting ready is probably a better phrase.  You’ve caught me practically with my hair in curlers.” His eyes flitted up from where he was pouring and he smiled and Mingyu couldn’t believe how normal this felt, even though he couldn’t remember the last time he just made small talk with Jeonghan and it didn’t end up in some argument.

“Well, if you’re not busy, Wonwoo gave me some passes to watch him and Minghao skate, and I was going to see if you wanted to go.  Wonwoo said Minghao was having a rough time and might like to see some friendly faces.”

“Hm Jihoon said Minghao came by earlier and acted really weird about wanting to talk to me, maybe that was what it was about.”

Mingyu’s heart felt like it jumped into his throat.  Minghao had come to see Jeonghan? Thank God he hadn’t been in, what if he had said something about wanting to get them together, God that would be embarrassing…what if he saw them together and said something then?  He would never live it down, he would blush a hundred shades of red and sink into the ground.

“Mingyu.  Tea?” Jeonghan was holding his glass out expectantly and Mingyu realized he had been staring into space.

“Oh yeah.  Thanks. Well, I haven’t seen Minghao since we got here, so I don’t know, but I was going to go cheer and thought maybe you would want to come too.”  It sounded so normal, teammates going to cheer on other teammates, but it felt so weird, since they never did this, too busy or too tired to actually attend and support them.

Jeonghan obviously thought it was a little weird too because he was giving Mingyu a calculating look, as if trying to work out why he was really here.

“Sure, if you don’t mind waiting a while, or meeting me there.  I’m not kidding about the time it takes to get me presentable.

“You look fine now.” Mingyu wanted to clamp his hand over his mouth and put his head against the table.  He settled for looking blank. Jeonghan smirked.

“Well thank you darling, but I’m not going to watch figure skating in my bathrobe.  How soon do they skate? Are you going to wait?” He said the last slowly, teasing Mingyu for being so out of sorts.

“They start in about an hour, I can just wait here.”

Jeonghan nodded and then disappeared into his room.

\---

As he dried his hair, going through the familiar motions, he wondered about Mingyu’s timing.  Wonwoo gave Mingyu speed skating passes. Minghao came to see him and left that story. Mingyu just thought of all the athletes to come invite him?  But if there was a connection, what was it? And why did Mingyu have to be so appealing in person, off the ice, sitting at his kitchen counter?

Jeonghan had been planning to dress up in some smart clothes after his bath, because dressing up always cheered him up and took a while and he had been bored, but now he needed something a little more…casual.   Thankfully he packed for every eventuality, and when he emerged to where Mingyu was curled on his couch, one leg tucked under him, and talking on the phone while writing something down. Jeonghan was dressed in slim black jeans and a oversized grey sweater, and his round glasses perched on his nose.

“—about to go watch Jeon Wonwoo skate. Yeah, the guy with the beret.  No, he’s taken, you’ll just have to stay heart-broken. No, with Jeonghan.”

Jeonghan leaned against the wall of the hallway so he could watch without interrupting.  He could see now that Mingyu wasn’t writing, he was drawing something. His brow furrowed at the person on the phone.

“I don’t know if he’s taken, but I don’t think he’s your type.” He paused and laughed, “because he’s more than eye candy, and while yes, he does look good in tight clothes, he’s also a highly decorated athlete who has traveled around the world, and not to mention very talented.  Remind me again when you last bothered to travel more than 50 miles from New York. Well, I can’t argue with that.”

Who knew Mingyu had a sense of humor?  Or that he respected any accomplishment of Jeonghan’s?  He wasn’t even going to think about the looking good part. Jeonghan coughed, and Mingyu’s head whipped around, while he slammed the notebook in his lap shut.

“Hey, well, thanks for the call, I appreciate it.  Have a good one. Yeah. Bye.”

Jeonghan came fully into the room jangling his keys as Mingyu stood up clutching the notebook.

“I’m ready if you are.”

“Yeah, um, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

\---

Minghao glanced up in the stands to where his family was sitting, and was shocked to see that the seats next to them were filled with Mingyu and Jeonghan. After his total bungling of seeing Jeonghan earlier, and Wonwoo’s refusal to tell him how his running interference with Mingyu had gone, he had been trying to not be too disappointed.  Without much luck.

“Wonwoo!” he hissed, although it wasn’t like from that distance they were going to hear him, “Jeonghan and Mingyu are HERE! Together!”

Wonwoo glanced up from where he was stretching. “Yeah, I gave Mingyu my extra passes.  I didn’t really think he would invite Jeonghan though. Maybe your plan is going to work dude.”

Minghao knew it would be really obvious if he kept darting glances their way but he wanted to make sure it was real.

“What did you say to him? Why won’t you tell me?” He sat in front of Wonwoo so they could stretch together and not be overheard.

“Well, I knew you would be mad if it didn’t work, and it didn’t seem worth riling you up on the big day, but I may have given Mingyu the story, told him you wrote it, and that I was a little worried about you, but that if he and Jeonghan came here together, you would be sure to skate better.”  Wonwoo said all of this while bent over, stretching out his groin and hamstrings.

“WHAT?” Minghao’s reply was louder than he expected, and several people turned to look over at them.  He continued more quietly, “You told him I wrote it? He’s going to think I’m a freak!”

“Minghao, you did write it, and you are a freak.  But look, he read it, and he still could look Jeonghan in the face and invite him here.  So that’s probably good. And don’t turn around, but they look like they are actually talking to each other, and not with that small talk look either.”

Of course Minghao turned around.

“Hao, I invited them for you, but if you don’t skate well, I’m never doing anything nice for you again.” Wonwoo said it jokingly, but Minghao was pretty sure if he fucked up royally , Wonwoo would never invite anyone other than their families again.

“Once i’m on the ice, it’s all business, and they could start making out and I will still be on that podium..” He grinned, an imitation of Wonwoo’s cocky look, but he really wasn’t into the mind games and all his smiles came across as sweet.

“That better be the case, because I’m expecting us to be up there together.”  Wonwoo hopped up from his spread eagle position in one burst and then helped Minghao up.  “So forget about them now, and we’ll talk to them after the program.”

\---

“You know, Minghao has that puppy-dog thing going on, following Wonwoo, but really I think Wonwoo is the one that is whipped.” Jeonghan remarked as Wonwoo offered his hand to Minghao, pulling him up too hard (or harder than Minghao had expected—he was pretty sure Wonwoo did it on purpose so that Minghao bumped into him) and Wonwoo said something that made the other man blush.

“Hmm?” Mingyu had been desperately thinking of another conversation topic, since he was pretty sure that having just worked through a critique of the Junior team and their preferred way to cook eggs they had exhausted all common interests.

Jeonghan pointed down at where Minghao and Wonwoo were standing, now with their arms crossed in identical ‘fuck you bitches, I’m not intimidated’ positions while watching other skaters test the ice.

“I was just saying that I wouldn’t have guessed it, but Wonwoo is totally whipped by that kid. I bet Minghao doesn’t even realize it, but just watching them, Wonwoo is the one who wants them to be close together, he just makes a show of being put out by having to drag Minghao everywhere.  I mean, Minghao isn’t really my type, but I could see how that would happen, how having someone who really knows you and still loves you when you have morning breath, and laughs off your tantrums and understands what drives you, that could be addictive.”

Mingyu wasn’t sure how to reply, he didn’t usually speculate about other people’s love lives in a serious way, and he had never considered baring his desires about love to Jeonghan.

But fuck, this was their last chance to talk about anything, and he had been thinking about it, since he was probably retiring now that he was the World and Olympic Champion—go out on top, right?—and if Jeonghan could just open up about this stuff, he could too.

“Um, yeah.  I mean, that was one of the best things about me and Jihoon, right, that he understood how I wanted to be the best, and was okay with how that made us not able to work, because we both wanted to win more than we wanted to be together.  But having both, someone who gets it and someone who is different enough to not get bored but doesn’t drive you nuts either—for that I would probably be whipped too.”

Both their eyes were on the ice, but Jeonghan had to take a peek out of the corner of his eye.  He had kind of just started this conversation to liven things up, to see if Mingyu would be real or canned, to see if Mingyu could be real with him, but he had thought it would fluster him more.

“Of course, now that I’m retiring, I guess the whole understanding my competitiveness isn’t as important, since I won’t ever be competing on this scale again. But I can’t really imagine being with anyone who didn’t get this me either.  Like, that would be getting the final product without having a hand in how I got there, in becoming who I am now. That probably doesn’t make sense.” Now Mingyu felt like he had said too much.

“Like if someone came into your life now, now that you aren’t competing, that part of your life would disappear, like it never existed, except for youtube and a room full of medals.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

They were both quiet.  Jeonghan broke the silence again.

“So that notebook you had earlier.  You were drawing.” That had actually kind of freaked Jeonghan out, after reading the story where Mingyu was a painter, like too much of life was following art (if that story could be called art) what with he and Mingyu sitting in the stands together discussing love as if they often sat down and talked about the real issues of life together.

Mingyu blushed a little. “uh, just sort of sketching, I don’t really draw, I’ve never had any training, more like doodling.”  The way he moved his leg to protect the bad with the notebook belied his words. Jeonghan reached under his knee and grabbed the bag away, holding it on the other side of his body so Mingyu couldn’t get it.

“Jeonghan! Please! It’s nothing, but it’s personal! Give it back!”  Mingyu was trying to be quiet, but there was some panic in his voice.

Jeonghan pulled it out, just holding it, weighing whether to give in to his curiosity and perhaps ruin this little truce they had or to give it back. He looked up at Mingyu’s pained face through his eyelashes.

“How about a trade. You let me look at your drawings and I will tell you something personal and embarrassing.”

Mingyu hesitated.  If he didn’t agree, there was the chance Jeonghan would just open the book anyway.  This whole thing was so ludicrous. This was like some ridiculous moment in a story.

“Write it down.”

“What?”

“Before you look, write down your secret and give it to me.  Use the last page of my book.”

It seemed fair, so Jeonghan pulled out a pen and scribbled on the last page before folding it and handing it to Mingyu. Jeonghan had thought he would open it right away, but he just held it.

“Okay.” Mingyu looked like he was mentally girding up his loins, “You can look.”

Jeonghan flipped the book open to a somewhat abstract scene of Seoul, obviously a street at night.  The next was the beach, a contrast between the straight lines of the horizon, shore, rectangular beach towels, sharp points on waves and the curves of the bodies, the waves on the sand and the dunes.

Another few pages were all of people, sort of. They weren’t terribly detailed, more impressions of how a smile played on a face, or the movement of hair.

“These, um, they are actually kind of good.” Jeonghan said looking up.  “You know what you’re trying to capture.”

Mingyu seemed to relax just a little over the next few drawings, which were from Pyeongchang, and answered Jeonghan’s questions about who they were—an older man from the clothing check out, one of the pairs in the kiss and cry—and then seemed to tense up again.  Jeonghan realized why when he flipped to the last drawing.

Like the first one, it dealt with curves and lines, but it was Jeonghan from earlier, the angles of his face and curl of his hair, the sharp glint of his eye and the curve of his lashes and brow.  He traced his fingers over the drawing before looking up at Mingyu, who appeared to be holding his breath, with a miserable expression on his face.

“What?  I mean, it doesn’t capture my complete beautiful aura but it’s good.”  The longer he looked at it, the more it was true.“Go ahead, open the note.”

**_“In the past hour I have found myself liking you more than in the past five years.”_ **

Now it was Jeonghan’s turn to feel a bit discomfited, on display. Mingyu’s drawing of him had made him think the note wouldn’t be so horrible, but Mingyu was blushing and looking even more awkward than usual, and still hadn’t said anything, and GOD that story was just fucking with him, making him want his life to have this sort of stupid drama that never _really_ happened in real life and instead of being a romantic gesture this was just going to be so stupid and then they would be stuck here until after the race, and thank god this was the last time they were going to see each other.

Finally Mingyu cleared his throat, carefully folded the note, and looked Jeonghan in the eye.  “Are you doing anything after the race? I would love to take you out to dinner.”

Jeonghan’s jaw literally dropped.  He gaped at Mingyu, who seemed composed, with a hint of steeled-for-rejection.

“Yeah.  I think I have a couple interviews later this afternoon, but you could come by my room at seven.”

“Great. I will.  Yeah.”

They stared at each other for a moment before Mingyu looked out at the ice.  “Hey, Minghao is about to skate! Finally, it’s the medal event.”

They both turned their attention to the ice, where the Minghao was stood in the centre of the rink in his starting pose waiting for the music to start.

\---

Both Wonwoo and Minghao skated to almost perfection with only small sparing mistakes. They both came gold and bronze respectively and Wonwoo had grabbed Minghao and lifted him up and spun him around, both of them laughing, while the stadium went wild.

“We did it! We did it!” Minghao kept shouting while Wonwoo spun him around before putting him back down.  They were both flushed and breathing hard from the race, adrenaline pumping with wide matching smiles. They both looked over to their families to wave, and Jeonghan and Mingyu were jumping up and down cheering along, their hands grasped together tightly.

Wonwoo smirked at Minghao, before pulling him close to take his hand.  

“Yeah, I guess we did.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> damn it's over. i didn't know how to end it but hey there you have it. my skating knowledge is limited i went off what i could find on the internet. anyway thanks for reading ! if you have any questions or any wonhao prompts hit me up on my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/therealthing)!!


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